[3.5](Vaal) Flameblast Inpulsa

Hello Exiles! I'm proud to introduce my first build guide which is a Tri-curse self-cast Flameblast Glass Cannon Witch a.k.a Self-made Pizza. So, without further ado, let's get it started!



PROS:
-one-shots a whole monster packs
-can do endgame
-high burst dps
-cheap
If you have an Inpulsa:
-auto destroys corpses
-good clear speed

CONS:
-can't run Ele Reflect maps
If you don;t have an Inpulsa:
-a bit fragile
-mediocre clearspeed


3.8 Skill tree
Spoiler




3.8 Ascandancy
Spoiler


Elementalist



3.6 Gear and links
Spoiler



Try to get life, resistances, mana and strength on rare items (and movement speed on boots). On jewels try to get increased max life, cast speed, cast speed with staves, cast speed with fire skills, spell damage with mentioned above and resistances. On your flasks you should have bleed and freeze (unless you have Hrimnor's Resolve) removal. Curse removal is also recommended.

You will need more investment into AoE and cast speed until you cannot afford an Inpulsa. Carcass Jack is the best option then, Also Inc Aoe support instead of Conc effect.

Good alternative to the Realm Ender is the Searing Touch - slightly less dps but lower mana cost of Flameblast.

Atziri's Foible is the best amulet if you have mana problems.

Hrimnor's Resolve basically gives you freeze immunity and frees up a flask slot, it also gives us some damage.


3.4 Videos


Older videos


3.5 Build theory and mechanics (offense)
Spoiler

We use Flameblast as a main skill. It's a high dps channelling fire skill which blows whole packs of monsters in a big explosion. Most of the builds today are oriented about attack / cast speed when we hit once but hard.

Orb of Storms
Casting this skill before Flameblast increases our damage by various ways. OoS triggers Elemental Equilibrium which makes monsters lose -50% fire resistance. It also triggers Elemental Overload resulting in 40% MORE damage as well as the Arcane surge which grants you mana regen, (10-19)% increased cast speed and (10-20)% more spell damage depending on gem level.

Orb of Storms + Inpulsa
Together they make a whole screen of monsters explode even after a tiny hit of a Flameblast. It makes clearing not only way faster but also way safer since if they die fast they no longer could hurt you. Also it destroys corpses making that you can avoid a few very deadly on-death mechanics like corpse explosion or Porcupine spikes.

Golem
Fire golem grants increased damage.

Scorching Ray
Linked with Spell Totem can be used simultaneously with flameblast. It deals enough damage to kill only weak enemies for you. Its more important function is lowering enemy resistances by up to 24% which results in nice damage boost on bosses.

Vaal Righteous Fire
It grants 39% MORE damage bonus to your Flameblast.

Vaal Flameblast
Cast it directly on a boss you are fighting with and watch him disappear. Remember to cast Vaal Righteous Fire first for even more damage.


3.5 Build theory and mechanics (defense)
Spoiler


This build is focused more on offence than defense so the best defense is just kiting enemy attacks. But if you fail with it a bit or decide to facetank some shit here are some defense mechanics to help you out:

Warlord's Mark
Grants 2% of damage leeched as life as well as Endurance charges (+4% to physical damage reduction per each)

Devouring Totem
It can leech life and mana from corpses for you without need of wasting flask charges. Its very useful on no regen maps and Labirynth runs.

Commandment Of Winter
It can get rid off some danger once every 10 seconds when you are hit by something, killing monsters and leeching some life back to you.

Lightning Warp
Teleports you out of danger as well as makes your travelling faster.

Orb of Storms + Inpulsa
Together they make a whole screen of monsters explode even after a tiny hit of a Flameblast. It makes clearing not only way faster but also way safer since if they die fast they no longer could hurt you. Also it destroys corpses making that you can avoid a few very deadly on-death mechanics like corpse explosion or Porcupine spikes.


3.5 Path of Building



3.6 Bandits
Spoiler


Kill all.


3.6 Pantheon
Spoiler


Major:
Soul of the Brine King - stun mitigation

Minor:
Pick what you need for a certain map / fight


3.5 Levelling
Spoiler


Main dps skill:
Get Magma Orb from Nessa once you reached to the town and play with it until you hit lvl 28 or switch to Firestorm when you hit lvl 12. At level 18 you can link it with Faster Casting. At lvl 28 you can use Flameblast. 10 levels later you can link it with Inc AoE. Inpulsa can be used at lvl 68.

Orb of Storms
It can be used after reaching lvl 4 and can be obtained as a gift from Tarkleigh after opening Lower Submerged Passage. You can link it with Curse On Hit at level 38, however curses itself requires lvl 24 to be used.

Lightning Warp
It requires lvl 10 to be used. Best support for it is Less Duration. The next good one is Swift Affliction (both with requirement of 31 lvl). You may support it with faster casting at lvl 18 but it only shortens the cast time but not the duration of travelling. Movement speed modifiers affect Lightning Warp so you should use boots with a good movement speed bonus.

Arcane Surge
It can be used at any level but don't get it to the max level. You want it to be triggered every time you cast Orb of Storms. The treshold is based on total mana cost you spend on casting supported skill. If your OoS costs let's say 21 mana and your Arcane Surge is at level 5 then it would require you to cast OoS twice in order to get through the 22 mana treshold. In that scenario you need to keep Arcane Surge at lvl 4 to get it proced each time you cast OoS. Feel free to check Wiki for adjusting the right level for your setup.


3.6 Enchants
Spoiler


Gloves:
Commandment of Winter

Boots:
Two of the boot enchants are good:
-Damage Penetrates 10% of Enemy Elemental Resistances if you haven't Killed Recently
-16% increased Attack and Cast Speed if you've Killed Recently

Helmet:
Flameblast damage

Last edited by brant09081992 on Sep 11, 2019, 7:01:31 AM
Last bumped on Sep 11, 2019, 7:03:48 AM
Stupendously happy for an updated and curated flameblast build in the listing again.

You use devouring totem as intended. brilliant.

Your OoS usage with arcane surge is fine, but I think you can actually list exactly how much increased spell damage and casting speed based on what level of the gem you use. Since your Arcane Surge is level 4 it seems, those numbers should be 12 and 11.

Also for OoS, since we are running elemental overload but don't really increase the damage from OoS much, the shock it provides will end up being very minimal. I can't imagine shocks would be more than 5% or less of a damage increase. But hey, it's something.

A lot of players like guides to have skill tree links or Path of Building links for convinience or to look at away from their web browsers. I made a PoB link for you (feel free to improve upon it, your character profile on this website is not set to public).

I love that you're using realm ender, a big fan of it myself. My question for your added cold damage link is partially solved when thinking about that, however, wouldn't fire pen be a close alternative, and how did empower look? In my PoB with no modifiers to 'when in combat' except to indicate that Orb of Storms was used in the past 10 seconds, added cold damage technically was highest in the recommended support list. However - Since we're cursing flammability, I specifically consider against bosses or monsters with high elemental resistances, that having greater single damage type penetration may be better overall. This might be a case where PoB can only think in 1 dimension, where as players we can think of more situations that may result in a greater outcome. Thoughts?

I would love to see a separate jewel section, it was somewhat hidden.

Cheers
Hot Flashes: poeurl.com/bPZT
Balance: poeurl.com/btzp
Shocking EleHit: poeurl.com/bZXo
Hey, thanks for listing my build as well as for feedback! I have already adjusted my descritpion about shock to fit better into reality. I'm gonna mention what exact bonus I get from Arcane Surge as well.

Also thanks for PoB but I'm gonna post my PoB link just when I include all rares I have.

I have just checked Empower and Fire Pen vs Added Cold against Shaper/Guardians. Assume we are on a 5L: -20/0 Added Cold gives +29.4% total dps and +10 to mana cost
-20/20 Fire Pen gives +20.5% total dps and +13 to mana cost
-lvl4 Empower gives +27.9% total dps and +12 to mana cost

I came with another idea which is dropping Ele Focus for Immolate. Total dps drops significantly but PoB seems to calculate ignite dmg wrong. It takes into consideration "55% more Damage with Ailments for each stage" bonus gained from hitting with 10 stacks but at the same time it calculates dmg based on hit with only 1 stack. I can't say if it's intended or not but it's something I would like to test. I just bought 20/20 Immolate but need to get Shaper fragments and see how it does.

[Edot] Just checked the setup above and indeed Ignite does almost no damage with it.

I also linked my current jewels.

Much love bro!
Last edited by brant09081992 on Nov 3, 2017, 12:14:58 PM
If vaal pact will be nerfed in upcoming 3.1.0 (no instant leech only double leech) what you suggest to sustain survivability? May be some life regen nodes?
Last edited by b00zzy on Nov 19, 2017, 10:12:57 AM
At this moment I see three options:

-getting VP and some other leech speed nodes / items (which would be not optimal since VP not only gonna be nerfed but also moved away from witch clusters)
-gettig some life regen in addition to leech
-CI / Hybrid version of that build relying on faster ES recharge rate

I'm gonna wait for a full tree announcemet because maybe there will be some other changes providing us better options. Also shaped / eldered items may provide some useful mechanics but anyway, I'm gonna work on this build to keep it adapted to the upcoming changes.
Would love to play Flameblast again when Abyss League starts.
Will have a close look onto this thread when the theorycrafting begins next week.
Thanks for putting in the time and effort for this beautiful guide :).
Last edited by Evoldo80 on Dec 3, 2017, 6:52:06 AM
Thanks for the build, it's a good basis for an Abyss league start.
I was wondering, do you think using MoM is a good option for more survivability and/or a HC character?
This could help a lot to mitigate damage and also sustain the mana cost of Flameblast.
I think Flameblast is too much mana hungry to go MoM. If I wanted to play this build as an Abyss starter I would probably re-work it an make CI or Hybrid variant since upcoming Vaal Pact changes. Also playing on hardcore with this build requires more focus on defense but if your priority is regular clearing over the single target you easily can afford losing some damage for survivability. As a starter I will probably play Dark Pact and when I'm done I will re-work this Flameblast build.
how much would this build change for 3.1?
"
how much would this build change for 3.1?

Almost nothing I believe. This build doesn't need Vaal Pact so you can even save some points used from travelling to it and spend them for something else. This build should remain totally playable.

Report Forum Post

Report Account:

Report Type

Additional Info